Stealing From The Best 

The Fall of the House of Usher is the original haunted house story that has many different techniques to make the reader's blood chill as they read the story. Some of them are so subtle and simple, but make a huge difference in the effect of the story. Honestly, because of the techniques used, this story is scarier than about 90% of the horror movies that have been released in the last 5-10 years. Here are some of those techniques that I would steal from Poe if i was making my own haunted house story.

The first technique Poe used was the unclear ending. What exactly happened? Did the sister and the main character's friend actually die? Did they even exist? That was absolute brilliance from Poe. He did not guide you through the story. This allows many different interpretations of what actually happened, which will leave the world guessing until the end of time.   

Another techniques I would steal from Poe is his use of extreme detail to describe the house. He described not only the appearance in such great detail that the image is burned in my head, but he described the feelings that the house was giving off. He did an excellent job of putting the reader at the doorsteps of that house.

This one isn't a technique but it was equally as effective as the techniques were. It is the absolutely disgusting mind that Poe actually has. When he described the family tree as " Having no branches" I was utterly repulsed. It took the story to a whole new level of disturbing. To realize that the brother and sister were lovers just sent shivers down my spine.

The next technique is the use of very few characters in the story. This technique has a profound effect because it allows the reader to focus only on the important character and not be distracted by any unimportant characters. It makes the reader care more about the characters because that is all you get!

The last technique is the background characters given for each charter. this allows the reader to understand fully who these characters are and why they are in the predicament that they are in at the start of the story.

The last technique is the background characters given for each charter. this allows the reader to understand fully who these characters are and why they are in the predicament that they are in at the start of the story.